Vital Nutrition Blogs

Did You Know…Pineapple…?

Well, we’re heading into Fall and with the changing season comes the changing temperature and that inevitably means cold/flu season is just around the corner. Sure enough, everywhere I go on campus these days it seems somebody is coughing up a lung or sneezing like they’re the seventh dwarf. Oh joy. The other night I felt the beginnings of a sore throat, which for me is a huge precursor to a cold. I was NOT impressed because this week is packed with school work including a midterm exam so I really could not afford to look like this:

Most people run to the Vitamin C or orange juice when they have a cold, but people rarely consider pineapple, which also contains large amounts of Vitamin C. Now Vitamin C is not a fix all, it doesn’t “cure” your cold. It simply boosts your body’s immune function to help you fight off the cold and hopefully avoid one in the future! Pineapple also contains bromelain, an anti-inflammatory, which is said to help suppress coughs and loosen mucus.

As luck would have it, I had no Vitamin C, zinc, echinacea or any cold medicine of any kind for that matter (I’m so not prepared for cold/flu season yet. Better get on that). I didn’t even have any oranges and I didn’t want to use up my OJ which is for breakfast, but miracle would have it that I happened to have some pineapple. And so my evening snack was a nice sized bowl of pineapple and a mug of honey/lemon hot water. Woke up the next morning with no sore throat! You may say it was just luck or you may say it was the honey/lemon water, not the pineapple. I don’t know what I say but whether it was one or the other it helped. So, THANK YOU PINEAPPLE!

3 thoughts

Interesting. I’ll give it a try. My daughter eats raw pineapple almost every day, but for me, it usually feels too acidic. But I’m sure there are ways to tone that down.

Are you familiar with Occilococcinum (sp?)? It is a homeopathic remedy for flu that is sold here in the states and at one time could only be found in health food stores but now is available absolutely everywhere (even Walmart), a testament to its popularity & effectiveness! It is incredible! My family & I have been using it for at least 20 to 25 years and I cannot recommend it more highly. If taken at the first hint of symptoms, it will knock it right out! If taken after symptoms have fully developed, it seems to remove all the flu-specific symptoms, leaving only those that are more often associated with colds (nasal-bronchial stuff). If you haven’t had experience with it yet, I hope it’s also available in Canada, so you can perhaps obtain some in time for the next flu season. 🙂